Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) defines a standardized packet format for delivering streaming media, such as audio and video streams, over Internet Protocol (IP) networks. RTP is used in conjunction with the RTP Control Protocol (RTCP), where RTP handles the media streams (e.g., audio and video) while RTCP handles quality of service (QoS) monitoring as well as the synchronization of multiple media streams.
However, RTP, RTCP and other conventional real-time network protocols are incapable of determining and assigning priority level and/or prioritizing network packets on a per-packet basis. In other words, priority in the form of quality of service (QOS) does not have sufficient granularity to prioritize on a packet importance basis. Rather, priority is applied to an entire communication session or to streams within the session without an ability to define the inter-relationships (dependency, redundancy) of the packets and streams that define relative priorities.